FSFE Newsletter - December 2012

UK: Small and major steps towards more Free Software

On 7th November, several political candidates standing in the Manchester
Central By-election participated in the "Manchester
Digital Debate", organised by our UK coordinator Sam Tuke and the Open
Rights Group (ORG). The event is part of FSFE's "Ask Your Candidates" campaign, which
aims to provide an opportunity to engage (local) politicians with digital
concerns that they typically do not address.

Besides these important steps at the local level, last month the UK
government has released a new Open Standards policy. In future all UK
Government bodies must comply with the Open Standards Principles or apply for
an exemption.FSFE welcomed this
step, and particularly its strong Open Standards definition. It also
includes another long-standing FSFE demand: to take into account the software exit costs.
From now on, when UK government bodies buy a software solution, they
have to consider in the price a calculation of what it will cost them to get out
of this solution, in the future. This means that government bodies could not simply
avoid buying Free Software solutions because they are locked into one
particular vendor's proprietary file formats. FSFE president Karsten Gerloff analysed
the new policy in detail.

We want to make sure that you are in control of your computing. This
control is, currently, restricted by "Secure Boot". On 19th November, as the
first government, the German Ministry of the Interior published
a white paper about "Trusted Computing" and "Secure Boot". The white
paper states that "device owners must be in complete control of (able to manage
and monitor) all the trusted computing security systems of their devices." This
has been one of FSFE's key demands from the beginning of the debate. The
document continues that "delegating this control to third parties requires
conscious and informed consent by the device owner".

Another FSFE demand is also addressed by the government's white paper:
Before purchasing a device, buyers must be informed concisely about the
technical measures implemented in this device, as well as the specific usage
restrictions and its consequences for the owner: "Trusted computing security
systems must be deactivated (opt-in principle)" when devices are delivered.
"Based on the necessary transparency with regard to technical features and
content of trusted computing solutions, device owners must be able to make
responsible decisions when it comes to product selection, start-up,
configuration, operation and shut-down." And "Deactivation must also be
possible later (opt- out function) and must not have any negative impact on the
functioning of hard- and software that does not use trusted computing
functions."

Though all of what the German Government stated, should be self-evident,
unfortunately it is not. FSFE will continue talking to other governments about
this issue, to improve their understanding of the political and economic consequences
of this technology.

Also on software patents, Richard Stallman wrote an interesting article
on the WIRED, suggesting to change the effect of patents: "We should
legislate that developing, distributing, or running a program on generally
used computing hardware does not constitute patent infringement."

Looking for a self-made Christmas present for your grandmother? What
about a one button audiobook player? Michael Clemens described
how he build such a device with a Raspberry Pi for his 90 year old
Grandma.

How to open computed tomography (CT) scan pictures (DICOM)? Our
president, Karsten Gerloff, broke his
foot just for you to find out.

What can you learn out of the Skolelinux pilot in Rhineland Palatinate?
Guido Arnold wrote
a summary about Kurt Gramlich's in English, so more people can learn
what happened after the first euphoria and the reasons why the pilot may be
considered a failure.